Venerable Isaac the Syrian (+550)
The Venerable Isaac the Syrian (+550) lived in the middle of the sixth century. He came from Syria to the Italian city of Spoleto. The venerable father asked the sacristans to let him stay in the church to pray, and he prayed for two and a half days. One of the sacristans called Saint Isaac a hypocrite and struck him in the face. God’s wrath fell at once on the proud sacristan: an evil spirit threw him down and he began to shout: “Isaac is driving me out.” As soon as the Venerable Isaac bent over the possessed man lying on the floor, the unclean spirit instantly left the tormented man.
News of what had happened spread through the whole city. People came to the saint and offered him help and money to build a monastery. The humble monk refused everything, left the city, and built himself a cell in a secluded place. Disciples gathered around the ascetic and founded a monastery. When the disciples asked him why he had not accepted the offerings, the Venerable Isaac answered: “A monk who amasses treasure is no longer a monk.”
The Venerable Isaac was endowed with the grace of foresight. Saint Gregory the Dialogist (commemorated 12 March) writes of this in his work “The Lives and Miracles of the Italian Fathers”. Once the saint told the monks to leave spades in the garden and to prepare food for workers by the morning. It turned out that thieves were planning to rob the monastery that evening. By the will of God they changed their evil intention, took up the spades and set to work diligently. When the monks came in the morning, the whole garden had been dug. The Venerable Isaac offered the “workers” breakfast and advised them to give up stealing.
Another time travellers dressed in rags came to the venerable father and asked him for clothing. Saint Isaac asked them to wait, and himself sent a monk into the woods, where the travellers had hidden their own costly clothes. The saint gave those who had begged for alms their own clothes. The shamed extortioners asked Saint Isaac’s forgiveness.
Once a man sent the Venerable Isaac two baskets of food by a servant. The servant hid one basket. The saint took the basket that had been brought and quietly said to the bearer: “I am grateful for the gift, but do not touch the basket thou hast hidden: a snake has crawled into it, and if thou takest hold of it, it will bite thee.” So wisely did the saint denounce people’s sins and labour for their salvation.
Saint Isaac the Syrian died in 550.
